by Asim Zahrani
“I will not fight against my brothers in faith.”
Britain calls upon the founder, King Abdulaziz – God’s mercy be on his soul – to fight against the Ottoman Empire, which was overthrown by “Ataturk”, the founder of the present Turkish state, and the hero and role model to Erdogan. Thus Britain offered King AbdulAziz the title of Caliph, power and both financial and military support, he denied, and stated in his rejection –
“I will not fight against my brothers in faith”.
Later on, Sharif Hussain of Makkah, the founder of Jordan, and the leader of the nationalist Arab revolution, has accepted the British offer.
King Abdulaziz shunned the Sharif of Makkah, which king Abdulaziz deemed atrocious and unforgivable.
The Sharif of Makkah response was to ban Abdulaziz and and all of the people under his Domain (Najd) from pilgrimage in 1924. This was the final straw which sparked the war between the Sharif Hussain of the Hashimits and King Abdulaziz of Alsaud.
A force of three thousand men took off from Najd (Mostly from the Otaibah tribe) and met with the Shareef’s regular army, which was dispatched from Taief.
The battle took place in Alhawiyah, in which after multiple unsuccessful raids and skirmishes, the Ikhwan forces of Alsaud managed to launch a powerful assult which forced the first lines of the Shareefs army to retreat, causing the rear ranks of the inexperienced troops to disorganize and retreat.
Sharif Hussain, seeing his army in full retreat from Taif, announced the resignation of his throne to his son Ali. This step did’t help the Hashimites and the troops left their stations, while disorganized, Alikhwan forces of Abdulaziz managed to Enter Makkah in October 28, 1923 with little to no resistance after Sharif Hussain has already sailed to Akabah of Jordan,
King Abdulaziz entered Makkah wearing Ihram and people gave Bayah to him in December 17, 1923 which was the day the lands of Hijaz got included to the third reign of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Source: The Middle East in the Twentieth Century by Martin Sicker
